Community Comment is a reader-written column. Think of it as the Letters to the Editor. All viewpoints are welcome and are only edited for punctuation and grammar. To submit for Community Comment, email your piece to [email protected] or use our Submissions Page.
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Editors Note: Have you ever said something and wished it never came out of your mouth? What about posting something on your Facebook? They say once it’s on the Internet it never goes away. This weekend that was proven. Stephen Lane, the owner of Oxballs, wrote an article in Leatherati almost 7 years ago. This…
This isn’t a new topic, but one that rears it proverbial head every few years or so. Sometimes more frequently. As time goes on opinions change, sometimes they stay the same, and sometimes the problem is fixed. “Old Guard” vs “New Guard” and every combination of these terms has been cancer that has troubled the…
I am an unashamed, unapologetically, Sarcastic, Gay, GenXer, Middle-Aged Guard, LeatherMan with three Priorities; Beating, Drinking, and Fucking. Preferably in that order, but I’ll take what I can get. Traditions “never” change Earlier this year, I was holding up a cloth weave jockstrap and commented to boy johnathan, “I’m more of a traditional Leatherman, I…
How individuals choose to identify is an incredibly delicate process, particularly as identity relates to sexual roles. In the kink community, we navigate profoundly complicated dynamics and, as a result, have come to a rough consensus of what certain expressions connote. This is an important part of communication, as it allows us to succinctly indicate…
A little backstory about coming to Chicago. The last time I came to this beautiful city was in late June of 2015, I was traveling for the first time alone as a gay male. I explored many parts of the city and was ecstatic to find room just three blocks from Boystown! Whoa!!! I ventured…
And, finally, into our world came Rey. In May 1977, I was five years old, and though I begged, my mother wouldn’t let me see “Star Wars” because she feared Vader’s skeletal-like hemet would “scare” me. But I did get to see “Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, and I fell in love with the mythology,…
This picture actually was from Menamore’s run in 1999 and was the year they held the fundraiser “Shave the Bear” during their run. The fundraiser that weekend had Russ Brannen shaving Joseph Bean, Chris Zimmerman Law and Frank from the Keywest Wreckers. I have no idea what we were laughing at, but we WERE laughing…
When Adam gave me his first harness, I didn’t think anything of it. It was a mere trinket that I couldn’t understand why it had such meaning to him. Time went on and it was tossed in my closet like a forgotten piece of time. Eventually it became a relic of my past and my…
This weekend, while at the SINergy kink/Leather/sex positive event in Lansing, Michigan, I had a moment of clarity: As a fully out Chicago Femme Leatherman, I take my Leather and S/M life much too much for granted…and I shouldn’t. During the weekend event, I wore the clothes, knee-high Wescos, and cuff that I wear…
In this edition of Community Comment… boy Tim, Great Lakes Leather boy 2015 shares his thoughts on the reaction by some to this years IML Top 20’s diverse line up. It’s amazing that a marginalized group of people residing within a marginalized group of people contains so many assholes trying to marginalize those people even further.…
